Foreign Names

Most foreign names, including the names of people and places, do not decline
in Latin. Since there are a lot of foreign names in the Biblical text, this
can sometimes be confusing! The declensions help to reinforce the meaning
of the Latin, so it can be difficult to understand what a sentence means if
the names do not have declensional endings. In the Commentary, I have tried
to include a note about every foreign name when it is used in a case other
than the nominative.

Sometimes the names do have a declension, or a partial declension.
The name Moses, for example, has a declension which is based
on Greek forms of the name. The name Abraham
can appear as Abrahae in the genitive. The name Israhel
can appear as Israhelem in the accusative.

The Hebrew plural form is found occasionally, as in the word Philisthim,
which means "Philistines."

In addition, it can sometimes be hard to recognize the form of the name used
in the Vulgate. Because of the sound differences between Hebrew and Latin,
it was not easy to figure out how to write out the Hebrew names with the Latin
alphabet! If you are confused about the names, go ahead and take a look at
a modern English translation of the Bible to find the form of the name that
you might be more familiar with.

Very often, the Hebrew names have a "meaning" (the way that a name
like "Grace" in English has a word meaning, in addition to being
used as a person's name). Since the meanings of these names are usually lost
in translation, there can be some confusing passages in the Vulgate, where
the meaning of the Hebrew name is important to understanding the meaning of
the passage. If you are interested in learning more about the meanings of
the Hebrew names, you can check any of the standard Bible commentaries and
dictionaries, or at websites which provide lists of Hebrew names and their
etymologies, like the Behind
The Names webpage.